Prosecutors in Oklahoma have amended the charges filed against the couple accused of killing 4-year-old Athena Brownfield on Christmas Day last year, alleging that the wife was the main culprit in the child’s death.
Alysia Adams, 31, who was initially charged with two counts of child neglect, is now facing the upgraded charge of first-degree murder, while the charges against her husband Ivon Adams, 37, have been downgraded from first-degree to second-degree murder, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.
Following her arrest in January, Alysia Adams told investigators that her husband brutally beat Athena to death last Christmas, Law&Crime previously reported.
Alysia Adams (Caddo County Jail) and Athena Brownfield (OSBI)
“Alysia confessed that on December 25, 2022, around midnight that night, Ivon beat [Athena] and held her up by her arms,” authorities wrote in court documents. “[Athena] was not moving and her eyes were barely open. He then laid her on the ground and punched her at least three more times in her chest. [Athena] never moved after that.”
However, prosecutors now say that an autopsy performed by the county medical examiner’s office found there was “no fatal trauma found” on Athena’s body and that the child had not suffered any broken bones, court documents obtained by Oklahoma City NBC affiliate KFOR show.
The autopsy reportedly determined that the little girl’s manner of death was a homicide and the cause of death was “acute pneumonia complicating malnutrition.” The new charges allege that Alysia Adams was responsible for “putting Athena Brownfield in a closet and depriving the child of proper nutrition.”
In addition to murder, prosecutors also charged Alysia Adams with one count of obstructing an officer for allegedly providing false information to investigators when she told them that her husband had beaten Athena to death. She also faces one count of child neglect in connection to her treatment of Athena’s older sister.
Ivon Adams is facing additional charges of unlawful removal of a body and child neglect.
Ivon Adams (Caddo County Jail)
As previously reported by Law&Crime, officers with the Cyril Police Department began the search for Athena at approximately 2 p.m. on Jan. 10, 2023, after a postal carrier found Athena’s then-5-year-old sister wandering outside of the Adams’ house. The postal carrier knew Athena’s sister “wasn’t where she was supposed to be” and called the police to notify them that he’d found the little girl alone, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI).
Shortly thereafter, police realized there was another young child still unaccounted for and requested the assistance of OSBI in continuing the search for Athena.
On Jan. 17, 2023, authorities announced that a child’s body — later identified as Athena — had been discovered after Alysia Adams claimed that she watched her husband beat Athena to death.
Alysia Adams claimed her husband discarded the body just after midnight on the day after Christmas.
“When he arrived back, he told Alysia that he buried her near a fence line that was next to their old residence in Rush Springs,” authorities said. “He informed her he placed a large broken branch over the burial site.”
Athena’s mother, Jasmin Adina Kay Brownfield, was arrested in May for allegedly abandoning her daughters with Alysia and Ivon Adams. She is facing two counts of child neglect by abandonment.
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